ORIGINAL: bluebird2
Button bucks don’t even come close to having three inch antlers and the past antler restrictions had nothing to do with protecting button bucks.
Here is a clear example of where your inherent bias prevents from thinking rationally. the 3" spike rule was obviously designed to prevent BB from being harvested as an antlered deer and provided a clear distinction between a legal antlered deer and an antlerless deer.
Now that we keep more of the larger 1 ½ year old bucks, that would have been harvested before the more restrictive antler restrictions, that old high grading concern has been improved upon instead of being made worse.
That is an obviously absurd claim with no basis in fact. If you are claiming the 3" spike rule was more restrictive than the present ARs,we would have carried over more 1.5 buck before ARs than we do now. You really need to take a day or two before responding to my posts so you at least have a chance to avoid looking like a blithering idiot.
Actually it is just that you need a class in reading comprehension so you can understand what has been written.
Between that and obviously not knowing much about antler development of button bucks (those six month old males) and what the old three inch antler restrictions really protected. What those old restrictions protected were the short antlered 1½ year old bucks. Those 1 ½ year old bucks then became the small racked 2 ½ year old bucks that you talk so poorly of. That was the very example of high grading that you now claim you don’t want to see.
When we made antler restrictions more restrictive, and that is what happened with the current restrictions, we made a huge leap in correcting that old high grading problem.
If you can’t understand that then this entire topic is obviously way to far over your head for you to even be in the same universe as those making wise deer management decisions.
R.S. Bodenhorn